As a Sacramento home birth photographer, I am happy to say I have never missed a birth. Well, let me rephrase that. I HAD never missed a birth. Not before handsome Mr. Arlo up there. His birth was one that just sort of came out of no where. His beautiful mama and I had been texting all day. She wasn’t sure she was in active labor, and thought it would be a while before Arlo arrived. Being this was her fourth baby, I believed her. As day turned into night we kept texting. “Should I come over?” I asked. “No. It’s going to be HOURS!” she texted back. I settled down on my sofa for a cat nap. As I pulled the blanket up over my legs the thought that I needed to get up RIGHT NOW and go to Janelle kept washing over me like a wave. I foolishly pushed it aside and tried to get a few minutes of sleep. This was going to be a long night. About an hour later a text came from Janelle’s husband, Mac. “It’s go time.” I jumped off the sofa and into the car that was already packed with my gear and raced to their house. I was SO excited to meet this baby. Janelle and Mac decided not to find out the sex of baby, but we all thought it was boy. I couldn’t wait to find out for sure. I arrived in much better time than I thought I would and walked in the front door. Mac looked up smiling as he and the midwives mopped up the floor in the dining room. Had the birthing tub sprung a leak? What was going on? “They are in there!” Mac said with a big smile. I saw two midwives and one husband. “THEY?” I asked. “Yup, get in there and meet Arlo.” In the 30 minutes from receiving the text to arriving at the door Arlo had made his way into the world – without the midwives OR the photographer. He was caught by his dad in the middle of the dinning room floor as a very surprised mama gave birth. I highly recommend reading Janelle’s account of Arlo’s magnificent birth. Actually, I just highly recommend reading everything Janelle has written, ever. She is pretty amazing and I am so very happy to call her my friend. And so, I missed my first birth. But all was just as it should have been. I spent the next several hours watching the beginning of a beautiful life, and for that I cannot be more grateful.
These pictures of Mac holding his son for the first time while NOT attatched to an umbilical cord are kind of the most amazing things ever. I just love this family to pieces!
Janelle and Mac I can’t thank you enough for giving me the gift of being there to witness Arlo’s first few hours. I adore you so very much. XOXO!